Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me

Luke 7:18-30 NASB

The disciples of John reported to him about all these things.  Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?"  When the men came to Him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’" 

At that very time He cured many  people  of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many  who were  blind.  And He answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the  blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the  poor have the gospel preached to them. 

"Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me."
 
When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?  "But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces!  "But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. 

"This is the one about whom it is written,

‘Behold, I send My messenger  ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’
 
"I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." 

When all the people and the tax collectors heard  this,  they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 

But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.

My thoughts -

Jesus makes who he is clear to John's followers here. He does so by quoting scripture and pointing to signs and miracles he has performed. He points out that the  blind can see, the lame can walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf can hear, and the dead are raised up. Oh yeah. There's one more thing. The poor have the gospel preached to them.

I am not a pastor or a preacher. I am not a scholar or a teacher. I am not a particularly well educated man. That verse is just jumping off the page and slapping me in the face. Maybe a historian could put it in better context and it wouldn't stare at me so loudly this morning.

The poor have the gospel preached to them.

That's the last of the signs Jesus points to. Is that more miraculous than a healing? Is that more incredible than a cleansing? Is that more important than overcoming death? Sure, Jesus did those other things, but he preached the gospel to the poor.

Is that what made Jesus different?

Also, what did Jesus mean when he followed that statement up with "blessed is he who does not take offense at Me"?

The "good" religious people of his day certainly took offense. He spent most of his time with sinners. He hung out with the "wrong" kind of people. His followers weren't well educated. They were kind of a rough crew, fishermen and tax collectors and whatnot. What kind of a teacher, what kind of a "good" religious leader teaches "those people".

And as for the rules, he had a hard time sticking to them. He kept healing on the Sabbath. He kept doing things that "good" religious people know better than to do. He was kind of offensive.

But was preaching to the poor offensive. Did the "good" religious people object to that, too?

In Lexington about a year or so ago there was an affluent neighborhood that objected to a church moving in. They didn't like that the church had a history of programs that cared for the needs of poor people. They didn't like the kind of people who were drawn to that church. They didn't want them in their neighborhood.

So they protested. They put out signs in front of their houses. They complained to the newspaper. They complained to the TV stations. They complained to the city. They complained and complained and complained until the church decided it wasn't worth it and moved into another space instead.

I wonder how many of the people who complained go to church somewhere. The numbers say it's somewhere between a quarter and a third of them. Some of them are "good" religious people. Is their Jesus not as offensive?

Jesus gave John's followers the assurance that they needed to take back to John. Jesus was/is who John was waiting for. Then Jesus turns to his crowd and tells them about John.

John was a weird guy. He lived in the wilderness. He didn't wear "conventional" clothes. He didn't eat a "conventional" diet. He was intense. He preached repentance. That can be a tough message to hear. We like to be affirmed. We don't like to hear that we need to turn from our sin. We don't like that we need to prepare ourselves if we're going to be reconciled to God. That sounds hard. That sounds like work. We don't want to have to work for it.

But John was preparing them for Jesus, who was sent by God to reconcile us, God's enemies, we who have deliberately turned our backs on God, to Himself.

The "wrong" sort of people acknowledged this. They had been baptised by John. They received the baptism of repentance. The sinners, the tax collectors, the outcasts, the rejects, the lost the lonely and the broken, they all received John's baptism.

Luke specifically mentions tax collectors a few times in this passage. You wouldn't have been looked down on more in this culture than if you were a tax collector. They were liars, cheaters, and thieves who sold their own people out to the state for a tidy prophet. They were despised.

But they repented. They turned. They're right here with Jesus having received the baptism of John. Who didn't?

The "good" religious people. They rejected John. They rejected Jesus. They were too good to turn. They weren't like "those people". They were better than that.

And they missed out on the most important thing in the Universe.